Third Sunday in Lent

"Jesus and the Woman at the Well," Stanislav Plutenko, 2017

Jesus is looking for marriage. But not how you think.  Let’s back up. There’s so much going on here, we’ve got to dig around in it so you can see the fullness of this story from John’s 4^th chapter.

It starts with the Jews and the Samaritans. They were both descended from Abraham’s grandson, Jacob. But 2,000 years after Jacob, his descendents wouldn't even drink out of the same bucket at a well. It’s more than just not sharing things. Jews and Samaritans hated each other. The northern Samaritans were descended from Jacob's sons Benjamin and Joseph, from his favorite wife Rachel. They thought they were superior to the southern Judeans, who were descended only from Jacob’s other sons, not his favorites. Also, Samaritans claimed that the older spot for worship of God was on Mount Gerizim.  They said that that was the place God wanted everyone to worship, not at the temple in Jerusalem.

The Judeans, also known as Jews, regarded their Samaritan cousins as half-breeds and outcasts. People that God didn’t care about any more.  To show you how nasty things got, in 65 BC, the Jewish high council declared that all Samaritan women were to be considered to be ritually unclean forever. That means that no pious Jew would ever touch or even talk to a Samaritan woman.

So Jesus is in this unclean and outcast land. And he sits down next to a public well, and he asks for a drink from the most- quote- “unclean” person around, a Samaritan woman. His disciples have gone off into town to get some food, and here is this handsome young rabbi left alone with a solitary woman by the well. That was sure to cause some whispers.

The reason the gossips would have noticed this is because wells were considered places of courting. It's no accident that we still have the word "watering hole" to describe bars--places where single people might meet and get to know one another. This goes all the way back to the book of Genesis. Jacob has been journeying to see his uncle Laban, and he meets some distant cousins by the well. Among them is a nice young woman named Rachel.  She is there watering the animals. Jacob helps give her animals a drink. Rachel gets excited about meeting this nice man and runs home to tell her family about him. He is invited back to stay with the family, and soon he and Rachel are married.

The same thing happened with Isaac, Jacob’s father. In Genesis 24, Abraham had sent his servant to get a wife for Isaac. Not just any wife, but a good wife, from Abraham’s people. So, the servant finally gets to Abraham’s hometown and says a prayer while standing next to the well. Lo and behold, a young woman appears—her names is Rebekah. Rebekah is excited about meeting this man, and goes to tell her family about what happened, and finally she gets to marry Isaac.

The same thing happens with Moses and his wife Zipporah in Exodus 2. The couple meets at a well, she runs back to tell her family, they offer Moses hospitality and then there’s a wedding.

Now, the same thing is happening with Jesus and the Samaritan woman. And it is at the very same well where Jacob met Rachel. Except this is not dating in the usual sense. Notice how the woman begins to speak in plurals: “Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob?” she asks. And then she says, “our ancestors worshipped on this mountain.” She’s talking politics and religion, and we start to get the sense that this woman here is meant to represent the whole nation of Samaria.

So Jesus asks this woman for a drink, but he ends up offering her water. Living water. Now, this phrase “living water” can also mean “running water,” like  a river or a spring. The woman thinks that Jesus is talking about spring water, and all she can think about is not having to come to the well again and again and haul water jugs back to her house.

But you know that’s not what Jesus was talking about. He is talking about the water of life, the water that gives new life. Not water that you need a bucket for. He means the water that so saturates our souls that we will never be thirsty again. The water that washes us from sin, and makes us be born again. Moses in the desert took his walking staff and struck the rock at God’s command and water came forth.  Jesus on the cross was stuck with a spear and water and blood came out of his side. One was running water from the rock, the other was living water from our Lord’s own body, water that makes us his clean by his bloody sacrifice.

If you have seen the movie The Passion of the Christ, there is a gorgeous scene when one of the Roman soldiers thrusts his spear into Jesus’ side and immediately blood and water sprays out all over the man. The soldier falls to his knees, covered in bloody water, and you can tell by the look on his face that he realizes that something extraordinary has happened, that this man is indeed God’s Son. This is the living water Jesus offers. The water that takes away sin, that quenches our thirst for God forever.

Well, the Samaritan woman is hesitant. She still doesn’t quite understand the living water, but she bravely asks for some. And then the ugly story comes out. This woman is no blushing young bride. She’s not a maiden who meets a nice, young man by the well and ends up in a good marriage. There’s a reason this woman is at the well by herself at noon. Think about it—when it’s blazing hot, you don’t go out at noon. The smart thing is to go out early in the morning while it’s still cool, get the water, water the plants and animals then.

This woman came by herself to the well at noon because her life was a big mess. She had had five husbands, and was living with a man who she was not married to. You can just imagine the other women of the town talking about her, clucking their tongues, rolling their eyes. When the other women went to the well in the early morning to visit and talk about their husbands and kids, they probably didn’t want her around. I bet she got sick of their stares and murmurs, so she just goes to the well by herself in the heat of the day. It’s easier that way.

But remember how I said that the woman represented the whole nation of Samaria? Same thing here. Samaria had been conquered by five different foreign empires, five times. And at the time of Jesus, they had a sixth nation occupying them—Rome. Five different nations had occupied the land and had intermarried with the Hebrew people living there. It’s one of the reasons the Judeans felt so superior—their blood was purer than the Samaritans’.

So this woman and her five husbands plus a sixth guy, parallels the history of Samaria. You want to know what the Samaritan word for husband is? "Ba'al." Yes, that's right--the name of the pagan god Ba'al means "husband." Jesus here is being the bridegroom not just for the woman, but for the outcast nation of Samaria. He is not courting her physically, but spiritually. Jesus has come out of his way to bring back the Samaritans to God, to woo them away from their Ba'als.

This is not about physical union, but spiritual reunion between God and his lost and sinful people—Paul says it in today’s second lesson: while we still were sinners Christ died for us! He did not wait for us to come to him, but he came to us.

God has sent his son Jesus to the lost, the ungodly, the enemies of God. Jesus came to give living water to the sinners, and the ashamed, the people living in a mess, the ones who are so stuck in that mess that they feel all alone.

The Samaritan woman knows that the Messiah is coming, and here he is right before her very eyes. She finally realizes what kind of living water he is offering. She finally realizes who Jesus is. He is the Savior, the Christ, the Messiah. In her excitement, she drops her water jar and runs back to town—just like Rachel and Rebekah and Zipporah—and tells everyone about this wonderful man she met by the well, how he had told her all about her life, how he knew all about her and loved her anyway.

The story begins like an engagement scene from ancient Israel, but ends up with a reception given to a king. Jesus has courted these people, and the woman, and has won them. He has offered them living water and they have taken it. He has offered himself, and they have received him.

Whatever sins you have, whatever shame, Jesus looks at and still loves you. He knows everything about you and still wants to give you the water of life. He still wants you to have his living water, no matter who you are or what you’ve done or how far from him you have wandered. If you are lost, Jesus comes to find you. If you are thirsty for God, he gives you himself to drink your fill. If you are dying, he gives his life to save you. If you are in a mess, Jesus comes to rescue you.

The Rock of Ages, as Jesus is called, is split open on the cross and by his blood we are healed. By the water from his side, we have life. Like the rock in the desert giving life to the people of Israel, so our Lord gives life to the whole world. He gives Living Water. Unless Jesus gives you this living water, you are lost. Unless he washes you, you will die. He is truly the savior of the world—the savior of the Jews, the Samaritans, the woman by the well, and you.  Amen.